Turn back 2 (Bay of Plenty) Ātiamuri, North Island, New Zealand
By radionut50 on 09-Feb-14. Waypoint GC4YA65

Put some toys in

TFTC!

Nice easy find. TFTC. Great spot to visit

Great spot for photos, TFTC

Thanks

Out for a family road trip, needed to stop for a break. Great little spot.. Thanks for the cache

Ok

Found it after a bit of looking. Found with eimajesordaman. TFTC

Driving to Auckland, quick stop on the way to grab this cache with teamrosenz and Greermae23. TFTC.

Found this a few weeks back forgot to log. Thanks for the cache

Out with Kiwi Does Stuff getting some stray traditionals south of home. Odd having been here to many times but recently learning the area a bit more and what it has to show. The day was ending so we hung around for a bit enjoying the area. TFTC!

Out and about exploring not too far locations and collecting caches on the way. This was a nice easy find once the GPS settled down. We hung around for a bit as the afternoon light had the fantails going crazy.

Kia ora from the UK!

I have always loved this spot since finding it accidentally almost 15 years ago when I needed to have a break from driving and this became one of my 'places of peace' that I have dotted around. Would possibly like to retire here one day. Will certainly be somewhere on the central plateau just as peaceful as this. Oh did I mention I found cache lol. Signed sealed and replaced. Thanks so much for the very interesting facts, most I did not know until now

Easy find on a first visit to Atiamuri. Thanks for bringing us here.

Quick find thanks. Used to live here early 70's. Things have changed alot. Tftc

A quick find as not hidden very well. Logbook signed. All good here. TFTC.

Good park and grab tftc

Only stopped here for the Geocache and glad we did. Lovely spot for a lazy Sunday. TFTC

Cool little find.

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I now live full-time in our caravan & travel the country visiting places we want to visit & doing the things that we want to do we had been staying at Mangakino & decided that we would go for a drive to Tokaroa & pick-up an Adventure Lab decided wed check out some camping spots in some surrounding places and grab a couple of caches if the opportunity arose turned out that this was an easy find, log signed & cache container easily replaced pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN:LN:SL ... #4,896 for us!

Lovely spot! TFTC its great exploring new places

Was heading home to Auckland....and surprising , had not made a list of caches I might pass along the way!So I found a safe place to pull over and changed to the Geocache map on my phone....Like this Title says.....I had to Turn Back for 2 !Was really busy at the Lake....Lots of swimmers and Boats with Waterskiers etc.I pretended to be taking sunset photos and having snacks.....then when no one was looking, I went over and soon found the cache. All good thanks...Very interesting info ....

Heading south to Wellington today, I needed a trad for dot day purposes. After a couple of false starts, I pulled off the main road at Atiamuri. On a slightly misty day, the lake had a spooky character about it. I was pleased to find the cache quickly, signed, and recorded the info for the next stage. Unfortunately, by that time, the boat ramp had got somewhat busy, so stealth was required to return the cache to it's hiding spot. All done eventually, tftc!

In the end gehschei found the right post. TftC.

What a stunning little place. Just left Orakei Korako and called in on the way home but now decided to camp here overnight. TFTC

This cache was originally placed in May 2006, as GCW3Y5, a puzzle cache that invited you to read details of the power station on a sign, then travel to a great viewing spot. Sadly, the power company stopped maintaining the sign, so the cache was re-listed as a traditional cache in Feb 2014, taking you directly to this beautiful view point.Over the years we have had to move the box a small number of times as the terrain changes around the road and jetty, and today it moves again.Maintenance of road and park fringes all around the country has dropped off, including at Atiamuri so the hide location steadily disappeared under the blackberry.The new spot is across the access road and more in the open, but hopefully still concealed enough to avoid being grabbed by others.Please make sure you re-hide it well feel free to look at the hint on the way, to avoid being noticed in this rather public spot and compromising this 17 year old hide.

Coordinates changed from:S 38 23.413 E 176 1.558Coordinates changed to:S 38 23.408 E 176 1.572Distance from original: 73.4 feet or 22.4 meters.Time for a new hiding spot, still at the great viewing location see todays maintenance log for details.

Well, that was a good find after seeing the stump and the rubbish around it.
A nice quick, easy, find, grab, sign and flee.
TFTC

I couldn’t really see anything and it was quite over grown, but I’ll try again next time

No luck for us today. Don't really agree with either ratings

According to GPS we were in the right place, but if so 1/1.5 rating is a bit misleading. Luckily no muggles about as we scrabbled in the mud, rubbish and blackberries, but I doubt we will try again for this one.

It looks as if it has been well covered by water and silt.
Lake is high at the moment... so has been put back in a safer spot.
Great place for camping here.

The lack of view when I was here is seriously AWESOME! Check out the photo!!
Alas the cache hide itself is a rubbish dump. Otherwise that view would have been a favourite. Oh well. Could the CO please organise a CITO event here?

Travelling north to Rotorua from Lower Hutt for Christmas - its a two whole day journey, because I keep stopping at places like this. Actually the reason I am in Whakamaru/Mangakino is because here is one of only six caches in the country needed to complete a challenge cache in Kapiti. And while I am here I may as well see what Mangakino has to offer. See? I did say it takes two days to drive to Rotorua from Upper Hutt!

On our way to Taupo for the night and stopping along the way for a few caches. We had finished and we’re just going to hightail it to our destination then last minute decided to do one more. We had to be a bit stealth as a camper was parked up with a muggle eating lunch. Geokid 8 dived into action and declared he wanted a photo for the log. Thanks for the smiley .

**16,139**
Another quick find on our mad dash away to Whanganui for the weekend. We were reminiscing about how this used to be Cashkids country back in the day. Thank you for the cache placement. TFTC

The geohounds needed another quick walk on our trip back home and I have been meaning to stop by here many times, so this time we made it. A very careful extraction was required due to rampant blackberry, but fortunately it was cold and I had plenty of clothing to protect me. The dogs enjoyed their walk in a peaceful spot and we got to log our cache. Many thanks!

A rainy day but a lovely view and a good find!

Awesome spot for a quick stop post cougar park run

Fun little detour on the way north. Tftc

Found it! Thank you

Definitely some small sneaky blackberry but with a bit of care no problem.

A bit of an adventure getting to this through the blackberry, but cachers go where cachers must. Mum just laughed from the top TFTC.

BlackBerrys cover it

I think this is our 5th of the series...don't think we'll be getting the bonus today!
Relatively quiet at gz today so this kind of awkward one was easily found. Cute wee settlement.

On a cache maintenance trip, called in for a check. The cache is in the correct place and dry. It has been a while since we visited this one, and the tree mentioned in the hint has turned into a stump, so the hint has been amended. There are a few blackberry vines around, but this not - so-fit pensioner did not have much difficulty checking out the box and contents while in shorts. Just take the entry and exit slowly.

Quick find as per hint although Mr beconaze got a little prickled

On my way to Mega in Auckland, made a little detour into this lake. Lot of swimmers nearby, but out sight. Thanks radionut50 for the cache.

Looked for this at the start of a bike ride from Atiamuri to Mangakino. Fairly sure we were in the right place but long grass, weeds and blackberry made the search difficult. Had to abandon the search and start our ride.

Yes it is still there nice and dry too

Nice easy park and grab with EyeSpyBen.

Think the tree has fallen down and cache is long gone. Also way too many blackberries to make this pleasant

Bit of a scramble but managed to find the cache. TFTC

Thanks radionut50 for the cache. It’s #1317 for us. We found your cache on 30 September 2020. Never stopped here before! My Dad used to come here from Rotorua on business when I was a kid back in the late 60’s.

#8196. I am driving south after staying in Rotorua and decided to visit a few of these out of way places to do bird lists for the NZ Bird Atlas Scheme and also pick up a few caches along the way. I enjoyed looking at the waterbirds on this lake and hearing the birds in the trees near the dam. I will have to return as well as I foolishly did not read all the cache description and missed the need to collect a code from the lid. The cache was quickly found so at least it should be easy to grab the code next time I am driving SH1. Signed the log and replaced everything as found. Thanks radionut50 for this cache. The water in the river here today was quite odorous and I felt sorry for those poor thirsty Aucklanders having to drink water piped in from the Waikato River with its thermal and dairy effluent inflows as well as city and industry inputs along the way.

Team munchkin on an adventure thanks for the great find!

We have gone down to Alert 3 in our Covid-19 lockdown, and Geocaching is now allowed, so time to re-enable the caches.

DISABLING THIS CACHE TO DISCOURAGE HUNTING DURING THE COVID-19 LOCK-DOWN. NEW LOGS AFTER TODAY MAY BE DELETED. THE CACHE WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

A quick find tftc

I am going for a two day trip down to Turangi, but just had to stop to get a few new ones along the way. This was a nice place to stop and enjoy the view while I got the cache. TFTC.

***[======== NZ Mega 2020 ========](http://nzmega.com)***

Planning for the [NZ Mega 2020](http://nzmega.com) event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, 23 to 26 October 2020. It's going to be a massive celebration of geocaching:

* 20 years of geocaching worldwide.
* 20 years since New Zealand had the very first geocache hidden outside of USA.
* And it's 2020 - all the 20s!

Talk to your geo-friends and start planning to be part of [this event](http://nzmega.com) - you won't want to miss it!

Yay found it

Great hiding spot tftc

Lovely and quiet here today. Managed to grab the cache without muggles suspecting. The geological feature. has always fascinated me, reminds me of Devils Tower in the USA (Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind movie).

While the muggle made coffee, Adventure Monkey found the cache.

First find on a trip north with tmann421.
Nice quick find, lovely location

beautiful spot for a picnic

A very welcome pitstop on the way to Taupo. Fantastic view across the water. Thanks for bringing us here. TFTC.

Had a good look but could not find

After noting the brief log saying the tree had fallen we thought a check was required.

We found the tree is intact, and there is no obvious nearby fallen tree.

Unfortunately although there have been recent finds, we did not find the cache where we hid it, and where the hint describes A wider search failed also, so a new cache was put in.

There may well be two caches near the location now! If you find two boxes, please put them together in the spot described by the hint, or maybe contact us directly and we can arrange for a pickup of one (we live in Hamilton).

Tftc,another dam on the waikato ,thank you awesome.

Nope. Tree fell over.

Nice spot here by the river.

Love this spot.

Found on my way South going back to Wellington

Sent the minion down for this one. She threw the container up to me while I sighed it for us and then I threw it back down to her to re hide. Very pretty outlook here with the steam lifting off the water. TFTC

Had to battle my way through some cobwebs to get to this one. Should of brought a picnic here today as it’s a lovely day here. TFTC

Good hide, nice view. Worth the rest stop

Nice quick find in a new spot for us.

A fairly quick find. As the location of the cache looked dubious if the water came right to the tree, we replaced it slightly higher, with a rock beside it to hold it in place. TFTC

TFTF

What a beautiful spot. The summer cicadas are in full swing. A lot of water weed in the lake, close to the road

Lots of muggles. Looks like the place to be out on the water. Fftc

What a cool little spot - locals were making the most of the beautiful weather and swimming in the river. Tried to be discreet here, TFTC

Another beautiful spot on a quiet calm day. TFTF

Called in today for a check. Found the box in the right place, but not firmly clipped shut. Replaced the cache, new box, log and bits in the same spot.

Very wet log. Nice quiet spot today. Beautiful & sunny. Tftc

Nice hide. Log book thoroughly soaked. TFtC.

On a long trip down to the mega with Lis's crew. So for me it good for numbers and favorites caches. With several stops and a lot of caches and several souvenirs up for grabs the trip was the perfect opportunity to get my numbers up and get some challenges that I have qualified for.

This is such a beautiful place with no-one around today. The cache we found was wet. I hadn't read the CO's post talking about two caches being here so we didn't look for another box. The township here was obviously busy in the past but looks like it's been quiet for a long time now. Thanks for showing us the great view. We would have simply driven past here if there not been a cache to find

We had organised a trip to Hamilton (Mistery Creek) a while ago to attend the New Zealand Motorhome Caravan association exibition weekend so we left Palmerston North at 4.30pm and headed to Taupo for Friday night, then bright and early headed off towards Mister Creek but not before collection a cache or two first, this was the first cache for the day and by looing at the map it looked like we may have to walk a short way but to our surprize the road took us to Ground Zero, what a lovely spot stunning, it wasn't long beofre we found the cache which was all good here today we signed the log and placed it back exactly where we found it. Thank you for placing a cache here it was so worth going off the main road. now off to the next cache then mistery creek here we come gates open a 9am and we plan on being there by then. TFTC

Called in on a maintenance visit, found the cache slightly more exposed than planned, but it needed to, as the lake was unusually high, and would have submerged the box where it was, so this is the new location! It is likely the lake will reach this height again in certain operating conditions.
Tidied up the box and swag, returned it against the tree, and updated the hint to match.

We've been meaning to stop here many times before but always seem to be in too much of a hurry. But today we were able to take our time and enjoy picking up more of the non drive by caches .
It was a beautiful winters day to enjoy the area, and no muggles around either!
Spotted the cache as soon as we got out of the car as it was sitting out in the open. We re hid it a little better.
We left a pet rock - a snake.
Thanks for setting up this cache radionut50

A nice little spot, and my first cache for the day. Managed to use the car to hide behind while some muggles launched a boat. TFTC

Drove out here after work... didn't want a dot day! Got to GZ no problem and there were some freedom campers not far from where I wanted to be. Luckily I was able to park my car between them and the cache. Spotted the cache fairly easily and managed to retrieve, sign and return everything without raising any suspicions. It was just starting to get dark and I saw the most gorgeous sunset while I sat in my car. TFTC

Find number 3919. I had a family day at the "have -a-go day" at the Taupo race track put on by the NZ sidecare association. 9 family members each had a turn. So after we went our separate ways I decided to cache my way back to Hamilton. This was number 6. I have often passed the turn off but never been in the village. All quiet at GZ but water on the boat ramp showed someone had been visiting. Cache was found exactly where I looked. After signing I went over to the jetty to enjoy the view in the evening light. Thank you for this placement.

trip up north to grab some caches, great weather and some great hides, thanks for the placement - no TB in this cache
few muggles around so was glad to see I was well covered by cars

such a gorgeous area. Tftc from the Leersen Crew, Victoria Australia.

Many moons ago MrsCoblet lived in Taupo and as a wee nipper her Dad would bring her out to walk across the dam bridge which was always a very cool part of their road trips. So we tried to do this today, unfortunately there were workmen around and we weren't sure if we should be there so decided not to try.
But fortunately, a tiki tour down the nearby roads led us to your cache and a great view of the dam. Nice spot and no one in sight made it a quick find, otherwise we could have looked a bit dodgy coming out of GZ, it looks like people drink there.
We only saw the one container without a cracked lid and it was in good condition, not sure if the other one is still there.
Thanks radionut50 for the trip down memory lane and for bringing us to this beautiful area.

Quick find. TFTC

On a road trip from Hamilton to Taupo and grabbed a few caches along the way. One way to turn a 2 hour trip into a 4 hour trip parked right next to GZ and initially searched in wrong spot but used logic and eventually made the find. Lovely spot down here for a cache. Thanks for the cache